Big Law

Five years ago Bliss Lawyers was a fledging enterprise with a unique approach to lawyering and an ambitious goal: improving the degree of satisfaction for both employee and client and helping to create happier lawyers.

Now, celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, Co-Founder and Managing Director Deborah Epstein Henry said a growing emphasis on non-traditional work arrangements and shifting market conditions have allowed Bliss Lawyers to thrive.

Bliss Lawyers, a certified majority women-owned business, utilizes an alternative legal model where it employees are hired out to clients on a temporary basis known as "secondments." Often, lawyers will find lasting work with the companies they service and that is one of the most satisfying aspects of the Bliss Lawyer model, Henry said.

Lawyers considering working for Bliss can expect to benefit from a culture that encourages them to grow and find long-term work at other companies, she said, while Bliss benefits from attracting top talent that gravitates to the company’s willingness to put lawyers on a successful career path, even if it's at another company, as well as its flexibility.

"There used to be a stigma attached to lawyers doing temporary work, as well as lawyers with gaps in their resume," she said, noting, though, in recent years that stigma has lifted and the market is adjusting to a new reality.

She said lawyers attracted to the Bliss Lawyer model are more diverse than she initially expected, with lawyers from all different ages and experience levels joining. For example, a fair amount of Baby Boomers are using the model as a way to transition to retirement, which was not entirely expected at the company’s inception, Henry said.

Henry, who co-authored Finding Bliss: Innovative Legal Models for Happy Clients & Happy Lawyers, said she expects lawyer satisfaction, overall, to improve as more choose to integrate their career and lifestyle and utilize models like that at Bliss. She said the very title of the book, implying that lawyers, a notoriously high-stressed cohort, can find happiness often invokes a chuckle.

According to information from the American Bar Association, lawyers experience substance abuse problems and depression at higher rates than the general population, and lawyers may also be at greater risk to commit suicide. A study published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, “The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys” by Patrick Krill, Ryan Johnson and Linda Albert, shows, “attorneys experience problematic drinking that is hazardous, harmful, or otherwise consistent with alcohol use disorders at a higher rate than other professional populations,” also stating, “mental health distress is also significant.”

However, Henry said the appetite for the Bliss model is apparent and the results have been positive. "I think there's a real yearning for this," she said.

In addition to an overarching improvement in satisfaction for both employees and clients, Henry said there are other advantages to the model. While there are some tasks that companies are more likely to ask of in-house counsel or "name-brand law firms," she said, many of the routine, daily items can be handled by Bliss Lawyers employees at a great value for companies.

"As we look to the future, we plan to further grow both the talent and business development streams of our business,” said Suzie Scanlon Rabinowitz, co-founder and managing director at Bliss. “With a national network of over 15,000 attorneys, we are squarely focused on creating as many job opportunities as possible for our attorneys as we meet our clients' burgeoning demands."

PMG360 is committed to protecting the privacy of the personal data we collect from our subscribers/agents/customers/exhibitors and sponsors. On May 25th, the European's GDPR policy will be enforced. Nothing is changing about your current settings or how your information is processed, however, we have made a few changes.
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to make it easier for you to understand what information we collect, how and why we collect it.

I accept Policy from this site.

Agree

I do not Agree

PMG360 is committed to protecting the privacy of the personal data we collect from our subscribers/agents/customers/exhibitors and sponsors. On May 25th, the European's GDPR policy will be enforced. Nothing is changing about your current settings or how your information is processed, however, we have made a few changes.
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to make it easier for you to understand what information we collect, how and why we collect it.